Exam material

12 important questions on Exam material

What are the 10 sequential stages of investigating an outbreak, and can they overlap in practice?

  • Outbreak detection
  • Investigation

  • Confirmation

  • Notification

  • Analysis

  • Treatment of cases

  • Interruption of transmission

  • Prevention of recurrence

  • Analysis and writing of a report
  • Surveillance

These stages are not strictly mutually exclusive; while logically ordered, several actions (e.g. case management, transmission interruption, and notification) are routinely conducted concurrently during an active epidemic.

  • Why is developing an explicit case definition vital during an epidemiological investigation?

    A case definition provides standardized criteria to ensure that all field and health personnel classify suspected cases uniformly.
    • If too broad or simple, it includes non-cases and overestimates the outbreak.

    • If too narrow or complex, it misses genuine infections and limits containment. In outbreak settings, it often links clinical signs with specific parameters of place and time (e.g. fever with characteristic rash in village X during January–February).

    In outbreak management, what are the three distinct phases of interrupting transmission?


    • Emergency methods: Rapid, non-specific actions initiated immediately before detailed investigation finishes to halt broad exposure (e.g. ULV fogging for adult mosquitoes, emergency boiling of drinking water).
    • Specific methods: Targeted interventions based on the identified causative agent and transmission route (e.g. targeted larvicides in domestic containers for Aedes mosquitoes).
    • Long-term prevention: Permanent environmental or structural modifications to prevent recurrence (e.g. piped water, screening rainwater tanks, permanent sanitation infrastructure).






    • Higher grades + faster learning
    • Never study anything twice
    • 100% sure, 100% understanding
    Discover Sailabus

    What are the four primary operational forms of public health surveillance described by Webber?

    1. Routine or passive surveillance: Continuous collection and reporting of illness data from regular health facility records and consultations.
    2. Active surveillance: Deliberate, active searching for target cases or contacts in the community by specialized field workers (e.g. blood filming for malaria contacts, door-to-door leprosy case detection).
    3. Sentinel surveillance: Gathering high-quality epidemiological or laboratory data from a select group of designated, well-equipped health clinics (e.g. tracking circulating influenza strains).
    4. Emergency surveillance: Targeted, short-term monitoring established during an active outbreak to track contacts, treatment outcomes, or bacterial resistance

    What is the operational distinction between disease control, elimination, and eradication?

    • Control: Reducing disease incidence and prevalence to a locally acceptable minimum level where it is no longer a public health priority; requires continuous indefinite effort.
    • Elimination: Interruption of endemic transmission within a defined geographical area or WHO region, supported by high-performing surveillance, though imported cases may still occur (e.g. neonatal tetanus, lymphatic filariasis, regional measles).

    • Eradication: Permanent worldwide reduction of infection incidence to absolute zero through faultless global effort, meaning routine intervention measures can eventually cease (achieved globally only for smallpox and rinderpest).

    What are the major structural differences between vertical campaign programmes and integrated horizontal health services?

  • Vertical programmes (campaigns): Disease-specific management, specialized personnel, separate budgets, and rapid initial impacts; suitable for acute outbreaks and emergencies, but expensive, hard to sustain long-term, and potentially disruptive to regular health services.


  • Integrated services (horizontal): General health workers deliver comprehensive care across all conditions within the district health system; lower operational cost and high sustainability, but initially achieve only moderate disease-specific reductions
  • What are the core components of the public health approach to clinical services?

    • Systematically designing clinical services to target diseases causing the highest morbidity and mortality.
    • Deciding what interventions can be managed best at community, primary (health centre), and secondary (district hospital) levels of care.

    • Providing evidence-based guidelines for standardized diagnosis and case management (e.g. IMCI, IMAI).

    • Strengthening underlying health systems, including essential drug supply management and district referral pathways.

    What are the six essential WHO health system building blocks shown in Figure 4.4?

  • Leadership and governance: Policy frameworks, regulation, and system oversight.
  • Health financing: Mobilizing funds to protect people from financial catastrophe.

  • Health workforce: Sufficient, trained, and well-distributed health personnel.

  • Medical products, vaccines, and technologies: Reliable access to essential, quality-assured medicines and diagnostics.

  • Health information systems: Robust evidence, surveillance, and data for decision-making.

  • Service delivery: Delivering effective, safe, and quality clinical and preventive interventions
  • How do social determinants of health and disease stigma obstruct communicable disease containment?

    • Disease stigma (e.g. leprosy, HIV): Leads individuals to conceal early symptoms, avoid diagnostic screening, and delay treatment due to fear of social ostracization or family abandonment.


    • Delays to care: Patients often consult unregulated practitioners or traditional healers first; by the time they present to formal clinics, disease has advanced, transmission has continued in the community, and complications are severe.



    • Mitigation: Comprehensive health promotion, community engagement, and destigmatizing public education must accompany biomedical search-and-treat programmes.

    What is social marketing in disease control, and how does it differ from traditional health education?

    Social marketing applies commercial advertising, retail distribution networks, and consumer research to deliver health products and encourage healthy behaviours. Instead of simply telling people what is healthy, it ensures products (such as condoms for HIV or subsidized LLIN bed nets for malaria) are widely accessible, culturally attractive, and conveniently sold through local shops and markets.

    What three interlinked pillars must be addressed in a comprehensive health promotion programme (Figure 4.8)?

    1. Public health policy: Legislative and fiscal measures creating an enabling, protective environment (e.g. drug pricing, environmental standards).
    2. Health services: Ensuring accessible, acceptable, and quality preventive and curative clinical care (e.g. testing, treatment access, counseling).
    3. Health education: Equipping individuals and communities with knowledge, personal skills, and behavioral change tools to control their own health.

    Nog vraag van chapter 3:
    In environmental sanitation, what is the minimum safe distance between a pit latrine and a drinking water well, and why?

    Minimum distance: At least 10 metres, and the latrine must be located downhill from the well.


    Mechanism: Bacterial pathogens from pit latrines travel up to 2 metres vertically downwards through soil; upon reaching the water table, contamination can spread horizontally up to 10 metres in the direction of groundwater flow. Fissured rock (e.g. limestone) or heavy pumping can draw contamination over even greater distances.

    The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

    • A unique study and practice tool
    • Never study anything twice again
    • Get the grades you hope for
    • 100% sure, 100% understanding
    Remember faster, study better. Scientifically proven.
    Trustpilot Logo